Our initial discussion focussed on
the idea of ‘deep literacy’ and the importance of introducing children to, and
engaging them with, ‘big’ concepts and complex themes (as exemplified within
some of our chosen books: The refugee
experience, habitat destruction, endangered animals, dancing bears, and whaling),
and ways in which authors have woven these themes into a narrative structure,
in these instances employing 3rd-person narration. We observed that the themes in the picture
books mirrored the social concerns at the time of publication (e.g. Dancing
Bears). We noted that some books (e.g. David Miller’s Refugees) are easier to fit into both the conventional narrative
structure and 7 (or 8?) basic plots than others, and found that it wasn’t always
as straightforward to identify basic plot structures as we had assumed. Libby
Gleeson’s representation of a narrative as a piece of string with knots at
strategic points in the story was a useful object lesson, but we remained
uncertain about whether sub-plots could embody different basic plots. Consideration
of the manner by which plotting story shapes can be an effective tool for
analysing and engaging with what is really happening in a narrative was a
useful exercise, and one which would be helpful in a classroom context.
The diversity of the books presented this week and the themes within the books was interesting and useful, as I have now taken note of the books that I believe could be useful for resources for other subjects. I did struggle with the notion that a book will have only one main plot, and even though the explaination of the string and the knots (Gleeson) makes a lot more sense visually, I am sure there are exceptions to the rule.
ReplyDeleteI thought that the books and readings that where presented provided me "food for thought". The themes that where discussed supported the idea of introducing big ideas to students in that they discussed issues such as refugees, animal cruelty and deep sadness. The discussion also touched on the notions of narrative and how they support and develop the narrative. Similar to what was said by Alex i feel as if the elements of narrative interrelate and that there are elements of more than one form of narrative within some stories.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed the books that were shared this week, as Petrina mentioned they covered quite complex social issues, though sharing these books it has help me decide that I would really like to have this kind of theme in my narrative for assignment 3. I took much enjoyment out of the activity where we were to pick a book and draw a storyboard, rewrite the extract from another charracters point of view and focus on how the author builds a charracter through choice of verbs. This give insight into how authors craft works and also gave me ideas in writting my own digital narrative. I found these activities very useful and will use them in my own teaching in the future.
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